


sleep, those little slices of death (how i loathe them).

by flustraaa



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV), Criminal Minds RPF
Genre: Character Death, Emotional Hurt/No Comfort, Gen, Guilty Derek Morgan, Hurt Spencer Reid, Injured Spencer Reid, OR IS THERE, Protective Aaron Hotchner, Protective Derek Morgan, Sad Derek Morgan, Sad JJ Jareau, Sassy Spencer Reid, Spencer Reid Angst, Spencer Reid Whump, U know I had to to it to Em
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:00:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24795052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flustraaa/pseuds/flustraaa
Summary: the team used to believe that when an angel died, the heavens would weep in the form of storms.after today? they’re not so sure.
Relationships: Spencer Reid & Aaron Hotchner, Spencer Reid & Alex Blake, Spencer Reid & David Rossi, Spencer Reid & Derek Morgan, Spencer Reid & Jennifer “JJ” Jareau, Spencer Reid & Penelope Garcia, Spencer Reid & The BAU Team
Comments: 11
Kudos: 318





	sleep, those little slices of death (how i loathe them).

**Author's Note:**

> she’s short and a lil bitter with a sweet tang at the end

He thought they were safe, the last assailant had dropped to the ground and Morgan felt a weight leave his chest. That is, until a gunshot rings through the room and the warehouse door slides to a shut.

“ _Shit_ ,” he hisses, “Reid, there’s a passcode protection. How many possible possible codes are there?”

“Billions,” Reid mutters back, “I think this is a Garcia type of situation.”

Morgan turns to look at Reid, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” He says simply, shrugging as he observes the touch pad anxiously, “I think we need to get out of here soon.”

“Yeah, that’s kind of a given, Kid,” Morgan huffs, and the others run in, feet skidding to a stop when they realise the predicament at hand.

“Are we stuck?” Blake asks, bolstering her gun as she runs a hand over her face.

“Oh, _yeah_ ,” Morgan sighs, “big time.”

“Can anyone get a hold of Garcia?” Hotch asks, pulling out his phone. It only takes one glance at the screen for him to pocket it, sighing out, “there’s no service.”

“Can we just start trying numbers?” Blake asks, “eventually one has to work.”

“It’s a ten attempt maximum,” Reid says, rubbing his eyes harshly. “I don’t know enough to know what’ll happen if we exceed the limit. Knowing that one of the unsubs had a background in IEDs doesn’t really make me want to try.”

“Do you know anything about it?” JJ says, voice desperate. She’s already thinking about how her boys will look in Will’s arms above her casket. “ _Anything_ , Reid?”

“Do I _look_ like Garcia to you?” He snaps, and if the warehouse wasn’t almost completely dark, they’d see his glare, “I hate technology for precisely this reason.”

“You could at least pretend to care,” Morgan blurts suddenly, “if you’re just going to be an asshole about this you can leave.”

“How am I gonna do that, Genius? The door is locked,” Reid says, voice mocking.

“Boys!” JJ breaks it up, “I will beat both of your asses if you don’t start acting your age.”

Reid sighs, crossing his arms over his chest and they all shuffle around, trying to find a way out of this mess. Eventually, Morgan resorts to trying pry open the door.

“That’s not going to work,” Reid says simply, sitting on the floor. “It’s _locked_ , Derek.”

“Pretty Boy, I am going to end you,” JJ and Blake push him back until he hits the door and Reid just sticks a tongue out in his direction.

Hotch watches him though, he can’t help but notice how off Reid is acting.

“Hey,” he says softly, sitting down next to Reid and JJ and Blake talk Morgan down, “Are you feeling alright?”

Reid just sends him a half smile, one that doesn’t reach his eyes, “Yeah, I guess I just have never been too good at having hope.”

“You should,” Hotch tells him, “We’re all gonna get out of here alive. It’s going to be fine kid.”

Spencer’s sends him a tight lipped smile, shrugging slightly, “Yeah.” 

“Did you know ninety people a year die in forklift accidents? Almost thirty five thousand get seriously injured each year. Forty two percent off fatalities are caused by the victim being crushed to death,” Reid blurts, leaning against a metal bar. “There isn’t one here, otherwise I’d suggest we shove the bars under and pry up the door.”

“Thank you, that was _incredibly_ helpful,” Morgan states, dryly, voice just as hostile as it’s been.

“That was the intent,” Reid retorts, voice just as emotionless.

“Would you just go away? You’re not helping anyone here,” Morgan hisses, steeping closer. Reid straightens, swaying slightly on his feet. “You’re just being a pessimistic and petulant child!” 

“ _Oh_ , love the use of vocabulary,” Reid rolls his eyes, but that does it for Morgan.

It takes one swift shove and Reid topples to the ground. The room goes dead silent and they watch him fall— he shouldn’t have dropped like that.

“Reid?”

“I’m fine,” He wheezes, “I’m _fine_.”

He doesn’t make any motion to get up, he simply brings a hand to his abdomen taking in breaths through clenched teeth.

Morgan looks down at his hand, and a wave of nausea washes over him as he realises that there’s a quickly cooling, and incredibly sticky substance on his hand, “Oh my God.”

“What?” JJ asks, but Morgan doesn’t hear her over the thudding of his own heart in his ears. 

He slips down next to Reid, pulling off Reid’s cardigan despite the kid’s protests, “I’m fine. Morgan, stop—“

“ _Shit_ , Reid,” Morgan breathes shakily, and the others crowd around. Hotch flips on his flashlight to expose the blood seeping out of the wound in Reid’s abdomen. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Reid breathes, “I’m going to die, anyways.”

“Hey, no you’re not. You’re going to be fine,” Hotch says, taking off his suit to press it to the wound, “you’re going to be fine.”

“ _Listen_ to me,” Reid coughs, “it’s okay. You guys need to get out of here.”

“We’re not leaving you, Kid.”

Reid just gives a week shake of his head, and Morgan looks up to see tears falling JJ and Alex’s faces, hands pressed to their mouths to muffle the sobs.

“You guys know I love you, _right_?” Reid asks softly, and Morgan shakes his head.

“You can’t do that. No goodbyes,” Morgan chokes out, his own tears threatening to spill over, “You’re too young for goodbyes.”

Reid just sends him a faint smile, repeating, “no goodbyes.”

They watch as his eyes slowly drop shut, and after he stops breathing they watch Morgan pump up and down against this sternum and try desperately to bring the kid back from the dead.

They can almost hear Reid telling him that there’s only a seven percent chance of the kid ever coming back to them.

They watch as he continues until they have to forcefully pull him away from Reid’s body when Rossi and Garica find them. They watch as Morgan cries against Hotch, and they watch as the the medics shove everyone into their respective ambulances to get looked over.

They watch Morgan’s blame himself over and over and over again. They watch him cut his hand open and break his metacarpal bone on the brick wall of the warehouse as he punches it until Rossi pulls him away.

They watch as JJ holds him, both shedding guilty and heartbroken tears on the concrete at the loss of a brother. They hear one another’s sobs ringing in the air, and they feel the after shock of the earth quake they created. 

They hear Morgan’s admissions of culpability, and the soothes of those around them that no one knew what was happening. They watch him lay his head on Garcia’s lap on the concrete once they’ve sufficiently fixed up his own destruction. They watch him close his eyes as the EMT’s roll Reid past, still trying to keep the CPR going, even though it’s useless.

What they don’t hear is the statistic about the longest round of successful of CPR taking six hours, or that now if given proper resuscitation minimal brain damage can occur. 

And what they don’t see is Reid taking his his first gasp of air in thirty minutes as the two medics in the ambulance look at each other in relief.


End file.
